Apple’s iPod has taken the world by storm. Nearly ubiquitous, it has changed not only the way people listen to music, but it has transformed its parent company Apple into an entertainment giant. In order to understand how this change came about, we’ll take a look at Apple’s ongoing efforts to make iPod synonymous with hip. We’ll also discuss exactly what customers are buying when they buy an iPod, and we will take a deep look at several aspects of Apple’s marketing of this exciting new product, from the iPod itself, Apple’s strategic planning, possible research findings that supported their approach, segmentation strategies that may have been employed and why, as well as pricing strategy across these segments. Last we’ll discuss communications, promotion and advertising, as well as an interesting shift in retailing that the iPod has enabled. Throughout, we’ll tie back to the Apple brand to dig deep into Continue reading
Business Innovation
Case Study: Samsung’s Innovation Strategy
The success of Samsung has been widely acknowledged in the last decade. Samsung, the world’s largest television producer and second largest mobile phone manufacturer, is also the largest firm of flash memory maker. Furthermore, Samsung was ranked by Fast Company Magazine to be third most innovative company in the consumer electronics. The company grew from a local industrial leader into a worldwide consumer electronics brand, with up to 261,000 employees, 14 public listed companies, 470 offices and facilities in 67 countries. Samsung was ranked as 11th world’s most innovative companies. It is one of the two Korean companies in the Top 20 companies. While Sony, the Japan’s biggest consumer electronics, was ranked as 10th, only one position above Samsung. This has brought questions among management gurus how this growing company could drive innovation to create success within a short time and remain innovative despite the difficulties of internationalization. In addition, Continue reading
Effects of Leadership and Organizational Climate on Innovation
Now more than ever, companies are putting more attention to innovation that make their products and services more competitive, thereby enable them to survive and flourish in the changeable and challenging global environment. Innovation is seen as the first attempt to carry out a new creative idea, and translate it into practice. However, it isn’t easy; it’s a difficult and complex task. There are two primary factors influencing the success of innovation: technical resources (people, equipment, knowledge, money, etc.) and the abilities in the organisation to manage these resources to encourage innovations. However, the latter is the precondition which can place high premiums on innovation. Organisation is a kind of breeding ground for generating creative idea and capturing new opportunities. An innovative organisation has several key components: appropriate structure, effective team working, external focus, leadership, key individual, creative climate and etc. All the factors are absolutely essential. All innovative organisation Continue reading